1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a replaceable unit, an image forming apparatus that incorporates the replaceable unit, and a method for attaching components to the replaceable unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among existing image forming apparatus including printers, copying machines, and facsimile machines is an electrophotographic color printer. Image forming units for black, yellow, magenta, and cyan images are detachably attached to the body of the printer, and are aligned in order. With each image forming unit, a charging roller uniformly charges the surface of a photoconductive drum. A light emitting diode (LED) head illuminates the charged surface of the photoconductive drum in accordance with print data to form an electrostatic latent image on the charged surface. A developing roller supplies a developer material of a corresponding color to the electrostatic latent image to develop the electrostatic latent image into a toner image of the corresponding color.
Subsequently, as the paper advances through the respective image forming units, the toner images of the respective colors are transferred by transfer rollers from the photoconductive drums onto paper one over the other in registration to form a full color toner image on the paper.
With the printer of the aforementioned configuration, the image forming units are replaceable parts. When the photoconductive drum, charging roller, developing roller and other parts in an image forming unit reach the end of their lives or when the toner in the toner tank of an image forming unit is exhausted, the image forming unit is replaced.
If the printer is configured such that the toner cartridges are detachably attached to the corresponding image forming units, each of the toner cartridges is also a replaceable unit, which is replaced with a new, unused one upon exhaustion of the toner.
The printer is equipped with an installation detecting section so that once replaceable units, e.g., image forming units and toner cartridges are replaced, a check is made to determine whether the replaceable unit has been properly attached and a variety of items of information including the type of the replaceable unit are obtained. The installation detecting section takes the form of, for example, a circuit board on which a memory is mounted. The circuit board is mounted on the replaceable unit by inserting into a pocket formed in the replaceable unit. One such apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-271895.
However, the prior art apparatus incorporates a pocket portion with a rib, which prevents a circuit board from being pulled out easily. The user is required to insert the circuit board into the pocket by deforming the rib. This leads to an inefficient mounting operation of the circuit board.